Etterwood¶
"Haunted by many EVILs." — a game master's summary of the forest (S051)
Etterwood is the great forest east of Proturas across the Ettermore river, the home of the Boreal Elves and the city's eastern frontier. Its outer edges have been cleared and settled since the Riverdale War; its heart is the Forbidden Forest, the corrupted ruin of the ancient elven kingdom of Arne'Athosia, from which the elves herd monsters south against the Proturans (S107, S052). In 834 AL of the Fifth Age the Proturan Council declared war on the elves of the Ettermore after the Sack of Dunharr (S051).
Also called: the Ettermore Forest (S051, S052); the Etterwood Hills are its western uplands (S052).
Geography¶
The Ettermore river divides Proturan Riverdale from the forest, and "Proturas and the boreal elves had a stable, if uneasy, border along the Ettermore river in the Riverdale region" until the war (S107). East of the river the land rises into the Etterwood Hills, where a kobold hold shelters in the caves and the old forest begins (S052, S053). "The forbidden area of the forest is noticeably darker" than the rest, and corrupted creatures "generally stay in the forbidden parts of the forest" (S052). Mountains stand "in the eastern part of the forest" (S052), and beyond the forest's edge the land falls over cliffs, "well patrolled" by elves, into the rocky plains of the Urok'gar Confederation (S057).
Deep in the forest lie the ruins of Arne'Athosia: the Shrine of Kae-Ferrel to Moros "on the outskirts of the great High Elven City of Anoth-Urulien", the Shrine of Caerylas five miles from it with its corrupted tree, and fifty miles south "Alyr-Emuien … the capitol city of Arne'Athosia … the HEART of the forbidden forest", where a Necruspex of Teneb'Vari lies in a failing prison "constructed by Kalar himself" (S053). Those ruins have their own pages under Athosia; this page stops at the forest's edge.
The Riverdale frontier¶
"Aside from occasional raids by the elves on Proturan settlements close to the river, the area was free of large-scale conflict. This war was sparked by an elven raid on a caravan carrying the Countess of Wrighthall's son. The entire caravan was slaughtered." The Countess won from the High Lord Councillor "a writ allowing the lawful settlement and annexation of all unforested areas of the eastern bank", six brigades were allocated to enforce it, and "this amounted to a declaration of war on the elves" (S107). "Many parts of the edges of the great forest of Etterwood were cleared and settled and the boreal elves were pushed deeper into the forest. A series of frontier forts have been established along the border … For whatever reason, conflicts with the boreal elves seem to have largely evaporated and expansion further into the forest has for the moment halted due to other, more sinister obstacles" (S107). The Riverdale War is told on the Rift Period page.
Wrighthall¶
The seat of the Countess whose son's death began the Riverdale War (S107).
Etterdun¶
"The Countess built the fortified town of Etterdun which allowed for the first permanent and safe crossing of the river" (S107). Etterdun is the Proturan gateway to the forest: the Silver Wolf Brigade and two conscript brigades were ordered there in 834 AL (S051); diggers and woodsmen are hired here for expeditions into the trees (S052); the Elf's Ears, an inn, is where such expeditions meet their forest guides (S051). The town has a church, Etterdun Church, in whose crypts a tower hides "a secret rift-gate to a DIFFERENT fold" of the Rift, "TWO-WAY. Operated by Eksuru's agents", giving "a quick passage into the deep forest past the front lines" by way of a ruined Lorsythian outpost whose gate has been repaired (S051, S052, S053).
Dunharr¶
A town of five thousand people on the Riverdale frontier, sacked by the Boreal Elves in 834 AL "with about 2,000 civilian casualties, the rest forced to flee" (S051). The Sack of Dunharr brought the Proturan declaration of war.
Lundewic¶
A town with a library, from which a steward of Malathar was "to acquire someone/something called Elysius" (S052); a lord of the Silver Moon could be met there within hours of Etterdun (S052).
Gap
The sources do not say where Riverdale's towns stand relative to one another, how many frontier forts there are, or who holds Etterdun and Lundewic.
The forest¶
The Etterwood Hills¶
The Grey Kobold cave of the hills sheltered "an encampment of about 50 people" working for Malathar and Eksuru, by a pact with the Thornback clan of kobolds1, "who are to be eliminated on the way out" (S052, S053). The repaired rift-gate from Etterdun opens into "a cavern in a Kobold hold" here (S053).
The old forest and the Utinus Domae¶
The Boreal Elves of the Ettermore live by tribes. "Utinus Domae Tribe (Sons of the Night) is responsible for guarding northern borders of the forbidden forest. Many of its warriors (allied with other Tribes) have been called south to fight the Proturans" (S052). The Utinus Domae Tribe has its own page. The elves "worship Gelu'lax, the Boreal Scions … each is a different aspect of the same being (Elder God) according to their religion. Their name for it is Than Agle, or sometimes just Than. It's natural form is a frozen treant": the Scion of Hoarfrost, Than Echor, "a blue tree coated in frost"; the Scion of Ice, Than Heleg, "a brown tree adorned with long dripping icicles"; the Scion of Death, Than Gurth, "a black tree adorned with skulls". They are "mortal enemies of Teneb'Vari … also known as the Mother of Darkness to the Elves (Naneth Fuin)" (S051). Gelu'lax has a page of its own.
The Forbidden Forest¶
"The shrine (Kae'Ferrel) they are headed to is near to the place where an artifact which holds a portion of Teneb'Vari. The Boreal Elves guard the area from a safe distance. When Teneb'Vari was imprisoned, her essence was split into many parts and scattered across Terrun. It corrupts everything around it, including the wardens the Boreal Elves put around the ruins to guard it … This part of the forest generates many monstrosities. The Boreal Elves lead/herd them South" (S051). Corruption runs in stages: the Dark Feeder, whose "hunger becomes insatiable" and who avoids light; the Dark Stalker, "black ooze drips from broken flesh in places"; the Dark Raver, "in constant pain and only blood and death can satiate it"; and the Dark Scourge, undead "under the direct control of the spirit of Teneb'Vari" (S052). "Boreal Elven scouts are adept at leading / corralling monstrous entities into the southern forest edges", and the Scourged toads, stags, treants, wolves, bears, snakes and spiders they drive are the forest's buffer against Proturas (S052). Teneb'Vari's cultists, "mostly a corrupted Boreal Elf … which looks a lot like a Dark Elf with bluish-slate colored skin", keep "a large underground network in the forbidden zone" linking several shrines and temples, led by a Necruspex (S052). The Cult of the Dragon works with them to animate a red bone dragon with a claw of Vixseranyol (S052, S056).
Brae'Dal and the Bleak-rock Citadel¶
Brae'Dal is a Boreal Elf home, whose Snow-Huntresses wear helms "crafted from the front of a human skull" (S005). The Bleak-rock Citadel is attached to the Boreal Elves in two outlines of the elven peoples (S023, S024).
Gap
Nothing places Brae'Dal or the Bleak-rock Citadel within Etterwood, or says what the citadel is. Both are given here because the sources attach them to the Boreal Elves and to no other region.
The Glittering Caverns of Uiren¶
"A sacred cave location" of the Boreal Elves, mapped in detail by the cultists of the Illuri Fold who planned to seize the elves' patron, the Frost Archon Uiren, for his heart (S010). "The Lorsythian Military has been unable to penetrate to the Caverns" (S010). A rift-gate "to the Cave of Uiren" could be opened by warp-stone (S011). Uiren is counted among the demigods.
Earlier accounts¶
The Into the Rift documents (S002, S009, S005) describe the Boreal Elf frontier before the Riverdale War under different names. "About 10 years ago the Elves notified Proturus of a claim on all land West of the Greenfell River. Shortly after, they attacked and razed several villages, forcing Proturus to cede that land effectively to the elves. However, some critical resources remain on the west side of the river, including Proturus's only trading port (Myrgitta), nightpine lumber and copper and iron mines" (S002). A year-long war recovered only Myrgitta, "which remained a fortified island inside otherwise hostile territory" (S002); the elves tell it as a short war "with the Boreal Elves winning almost every encounter", after which "the Exiles were able to retake and fortify their village of Myrgitta on the Desolate Coast, some 50 miles east of the river. It remains to this day a blight upon the area that the elves have been unable to remove" (S005). Contact with Myrgitta was then lost to Guhvils from the north (S002, S009). The Greenfell River was also the line to which Lorsythe retreated after its three-year war with the elves (S005). Whether the Greenfell is the Ettermore under an older name, and Myrgitta a lost Proturan port on a coast the later documents never mention, the sources do not say.
In Play¶
The Proturan Campaign party crossed from Etterdun's church through the Rift into the Etterwood Hills, fought the Boreal Elves of the old forest, reached the Shrine of Kae-Ferrel and the Shrine of Caerylas, and left the forest eastward into the Urok'gar borderlands (S053, S054, S057). The frontier with the elves is the posting of the Lorsythian lieutenant and the hunting ground of the Snow-Huntress of Into the Rift (S004, S005).